Raindrops
Quicksilvre
-)-)-)-)
Summer figured it couldn't have been too much longer to her destination; just a mile or so, maybe less. She had already been walking, on and off, for five hours. She started after lunch; the sun was still fairly high in the sky, though a lot lower than it was. After the night before, she didn't relish the idea of camping out again.
She wiped her sweaty forehead and sat herself down on a fallen tree at the side of the road. Time for a water break. Summer put down her pack and bent over it, stiffly. The combination of carrying a giant load, with sleeping on the barely-padded ground, were twisting her back into French braids. Shifting position alone was growing painful. Slowly, she bent back up with her water bottle and took a few gulps. The last thing she had done before setting off that afternoon was to refill it, and it paid off. It was the right boost she needed.
Town, or whatever, was just another half-hour or so away. Already Summer was making a list of what she needed to get: toilet paper, soap, toothbrush and toothpaste, at least. Just thinking of the last two made her grimace; she didn't know how long it had been since she had brushed her teeth, but it was long enough to make her mouth taste like a toxic waste dump.
She checked her map again. She saw a small pond marked off on it, two miles from the town...and she passed that a half-hour before. "Tonight. I'll make it tonight, and I'll find...someplace, and sleep this time."
An inn. That's what I got to find. And coffee, if it's there.
The map had shown more detail since the first day, and now seemed to be complete. The town, from what she could see, was a hub from which four roads joined. Summer was walking up the first one. A second went up into a hilly area that still looked pretty fuzzy. The other two went to the ocean.
Ah, the ocean. Summer could still remember the smell of the salty air and the sound of the waves...feeling Cohen cuddled right beside her...
She shook her head. No time for that.
-)-)-)-)
The town had no name. It was just there, existing where the roads met. By dusk, the whole town was shutting down, as stores closed shop and stands packed their goods and went home. Summer nearly had to beg her way into the general store, as its owner seemed rather eager to go home. With a batted eyelash, a bit of begging, and all of her jewelry, she was able to get a few minutes and the supplies she needed.
Finding someplace to sleep, however, was a different deal entirely. It seemed the town wasn't very used to visitors, at least not the ones that stayed overnight. The only inn in town greeted Summer with a curt "We're full" when she walked in the door.
"Please?" She looked pleadingly at the woman at the desk, a bitter-grandmother type. "Isn't there anything I could do to–"
"There are no rooms."
"I can clean dishes, or something...." Summer left her voice drift off as she looked over to a room to the side. It was filled wall-to-wall with liquored up men and two or three frightened-looking call girls. She made a mental note to stay clear if she could.
"I says, no rooms!" The woman snapped her fingers, and before Summer could react, one of the drunken men from the next room grabbed her by the back of her shirt, picked her up effortlessly, and tossed her head-first out into the street. Her pack quickly followed.
"Ow! Dammit!" Summer quickly got up to run back to the inn, in order to get a piece of the bastard–nothing. The inn's doors shut faster than lightning. "Ass, open this door now!" She pounded furiously at the door, feeling herself drift toward a rage blackout.
Another drunken man stuck his head out of the window and stared fiercely at her. Summer turned to scream at him–and lost her voice instantly. He was big and dangerous looking, but that was no different than some of the guys back home. It was his eyes that frightened Summer.
Big, yellow, and angry looking. They seemed to suggest murder.
"Uh...sorry...." Summer could hear her voice lose all of its strength. Meekly, she gathered the stuff spilled from her pack, threw everything up onto her back, and left the area–quickly.
-)-)-)-)
It was far too long after sunset to even try to find anything else in town. Without lights in the streets, the town became dark in a way Summer never saw before. A tiny sliver of a moon gave the only light that still existed. She couldn't see her hand in front of her face or her feet on the road.
She shivered–it was getting cool out too. She continued onward, hoping to find someone, anyone who would take her in, but every house was shuttered up tight. Bumping into something, she found some sort of large box in the middle of the road. Summer guessed it was a cart of some sort, and climbed in.
It held no animals, so sharp objects, nothing, it seemed, but her and some hay. She gratefully snuggled in, trying to bury herself part of the way to insulate herself. Within a few minutes, she was able to clumsily unzip her sleeping bag into a blanket and build herself a little nest. It was scratchy and made her eyes water like mad, but much better than the night before.
She closed her eyes, coughed, and tried to get calm enough to sleep. Her forehead stung as the rubbed her head on her temporary bed, leaving notice that the town's hospitality would leave its own special mark.
"It's how it is now. It's how it is now." She clenched her eyes a little tighter, trying not to get upset.
She felt her eyes fill with tears again. "What did I do that was so bad? I didn't kill anyone or send anyone off to some horrible life."
Be someone.
"Goddamn it, stop that!" Her voice broke out in a sob. "I don't want to be anyone anymore! I want to curl up on a little cloud and see angels and just...sleep. Sleep and rest. I want to wake up when everything works out."
Summer felt herself slowly deteriorate. She tried nestling in to comfort herself, the hay's smell overcame her as the crinkly fibers poked her cheeks. As she laid in the straw, she tried keeping it in, not wanting to attract attention, but she surrendered herself to emotion and broke down into tears, bit by bit.
-)-)-)-)
"Scoundrel!"
Summer awoke with a jolt. The voice sounded both unfriendly and very nearby.
"Begone, girl!" A loud crack filled the air around her with noise, and she felt something powerful smash into her back, ripping through her blanket. "Out! Out!"
"Hey! Ow!" She rolled over on her back, to see the cart's extremely angry owner and a long bullwhip in his hand.
"Leave, wench!" The whip came down again, slapping into her stomach with force.
"Please, I–"
"I shall not tolerate nomads in my property!" With even more force, the cart owner dropped the whip again, this time striking her face with great violence.
Summer screamed, and dove back down into the hay. Trying frantically to burrow back down, she felt two more slaps to her back. She heard the owner rustle through the hay behind her, then felt a strong hand grab her shirt.
"No!" She kicked back, connecting with the man's arm. Her burner clattered against the side of the cart and clicked on. Before the cart owner could regroup for a second shot, acrid smoke began to fill the air and orange tongues of fire licked at the hay around the spilling lighter fluid.
"Argh!"
Without thinking or planning, Summer whipped back up and punched the cart owner square in the jaw. As he stepped back, stunned, she threw smoldering debris in his face, leaped out of the cart, and burst toward safety. Frenzied by the pain and panic, she sprinted past her nemesis and ran out of town, trailing bits of smoking straw behind her the whole way.